Well, this month, things escalated very quickly indeed. I mean, we were just enjoying the new christmas update, and looking foward to a happy new year.

Then WHAM. Out of nowhere, a letter from Saxton Hale was posted up on the bulletin board. I remember the premiums, dropping their crowbars and partially opened crates and flocking to the board to see the new message. Was it a new batch of hats? Items? More updates?

It was something much worse.

I can still remember their horrified cries, some sobbing, others raging, still others staring in shock. The original 6 hats, the first hats in TF2, some of the most beloved hats, would be gone forever.

There was panic buying, people jealously refusing offers, people desperately refusing to let their hats go. Then the rumours started. Strange parts, weapons, even other hats would be retired.

Meanwhile, there was mourning all over the world in TF2 battlefields. Some dropped their hats into bonfires, others buried them and had a memorial service, yet more simply just refused to let go. I remember a Heavy desperately holding on to his hat, sobbing like a baby as Miss Pauling tried to drag it away.

Now, there's a lot of speculation going around. People are hearing rumours that weapons will get taken away, and more hats too.

( Note: I tried to make it seem like a story in the TF2 Universe, where mercenaries are employed and hats are treasured, and the Mann. Co Store have actual stores across the world.)

To be honest, I don't give one one-hundredth of a percentage of a f*** about hats. Just to put it clearly, I never found em interesting and I never use them. But I am still curious as to why they took them away. I understand that people who did care about them are sad, it just astounds me that they would do this.

But I am still curious as to why they took them away. I understand that people who did care about them are sad, it just astounds me that they would do this.

*sigh* they didn't get deleted from backpacks, they just don't drop anymore and they got removed from the Shop.People whine because they can't make profit if they don't own these hats.We have plenty of them, we don't need more.

I certainly didn't support this hat retirement, but at the very least, it gave players a newfound reverence for hats that began a series of updates that helped make TF2 the hat simulator it is today. I appreciate seeing the Pickelhaube or the Soldier's Stash in their oldened glory on the occasional player, now, as opposed to having them collect dust in various player's inventories.

That said, I really hope hat retirement doesn't become a normal trend. Classless update hats like the Stove Pipe, the Ushanka, the Tyrolean, or the Ten Gallon will never deserve the fate of the original nine. Never.